Mooring buoy



Feb. 4, 1969 J. A. CHRISTIANS MOORING BUOY Filed Dec. l. 1967 United States Patent O 3,425,069 MOORING BUOY John A. Christians, Springfield, Va., assignor to the United States of America as represented by the Secretary ofthe Army Filed Dec. 1, 1967, Ser. No. 687,306 U.S. Cl. 9-8

6 Claims Int. Cl. B63b 21/52 ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE The invention discribed herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental -purposes without the payment to me of any royalities thereon.

Field of the invention This invention is in the class of mooring buoys for oating vessels.

Description of the prior art In the art of mooring buoys, there is a need for a buoy that is stable in rising waters caused by tides `and weather disturbances while still providing stabilized mooring of a oating vessel. No prior art is known to solve these problems in the manner set forth in this application.

Summary This invention is a device to moor ships of any size for any purpose. It is designed to use a continuous wire rope wherein the tension of the rope is determined by the rise and fall of the water surface as well yas by the displacement introduced by forces on a vessel anchored thereto. By exercise of this invention, a plurality of considerably smaller than usual anchors are utilized. Since the` load on each anchor is applied equally, the anchoring device can be explosive embedment, piling, and dea-d weights or the like. The buoy structure is such that an opening is provided in the center thereof, such as a toroid. The plurality of anchors are evenly spaced and are placed directly under the Aoutside periphery of the buoy. The continuous wire rope is fed over a series of blocks, some of which are connected to the anchors and others are connected to the buoy. Still others are connected to `a weight which is suspended beneath the center aperture of the buoy. When the buoy rises with the tide or waves, the weight is likewise raised a proportionate amount in respect to the tensioning of the sections of the wire rope between the buoy Iand the weight. Likewise, the weight will descend in respect to a descent of the buoy while maintaining the wire rope taut.

When a vessel is secured to the buoy, an equalization of forces applied to eachanchor is similarly provided by the weight absorbing the forces applied to the continuous wire rope. Then the horizontal component of the forces attached by the Weights are equal to the opposite horizontal forces contributed by the anchored vessel, the buoy is stable. The complete mooring system is designed such that the forces applied thereto do not exceed the capa- 3,425,069 Patented Feb. 4, 1969 bilites of the compensative forces within the mooring system.

These features combine to provide a mooring buoy which requires far less dead weight materials than any in the prior art, while incorporating the features set forth above.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an approved mooring buoy.

Another object of this invention is to provide .a mooring buoy which utilizes a continuous wire rope threaded through a pluralty of sheaves with a weight maintaining tautness in the wire rope.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a mooring device which readily accommodates for varyng depthl of water and forces applied thereto by a moored vesse A further object of this invention is to reduce the dead weight necessary for adequate mooring.

A still further object of this invention is to overcome the inadequacies of prior mooring buoys.

The exact nature of this invention `as Well as other objects and advantages thereof will be readily apparent from consider-ation of the following specification relating to the annexed drawing in which:

Brie]c description of the drawings FIGURE 1 shows a side view of the mooring -buoy of this invention;

FIGURE 2 shows a top view of the mooring buoy of this invention with the anchors thereof placed so as to be visible;

FIGURE 3 shows a sleeve-type pulley; and

FIGURE 4 shows an alternate mounting of a plurality of sheaves about the periphery of the buoy.

Description of a preferred embodiment Turning now to FIGURES l and 2 of the drawings, the buoy 10 iloats at the surface of the water. Secured thereto is an anchor hook 11 to which an anchor line 12 is tied so as to moor the vessel 13. A continuous wire rope 14 which is capable of withstanding corrosive effects of all kinds of water is wired through pluralities of sheaves. The spacial relationships of the three elements on which the sheaves are pivoted maintains the tautness and preserves the wiring configuration. A rst plurality of sheaves 1S is pivotally connected one to each of la like plurality of anchors 17 by anchor wires or chains 16. A second plurality of sheaves 23 is mounted on a vertical surface of buoy 10 and a third plurality of sheaves 18 is mounted so as to permit freedom of movement of the wire rope 14 along a path that extends from the exterior of buoy 10 over buoy 10 into the opening within buoy 10. A fourth plurality of sheaves 19 is mounted on a wei-ght 21 and each is aligned so as to permit passage of the wire rope 14 from each side thereof to pass over adjacent of said third plurality of sheaves.

The wiring -of the wire rope 14 is shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, Starting with a sheave 19 on weight 21 and continuing in a clockwise direction, wire rope 14 reaches 11pward at an angle to and over sheave 18 downwardly to sheave 15, up to sheave 23 and back down to the next adjacent sheave 15. Wire rope 14 goes around the second sheave 15 'and to and over the next adjacent sheave 18 down to the next adjacent sheave 19 on weight 21 and so on around the periphery of the buoy 10. There lare four sets of sheaves as described in this wiring configuration, two anchors 17 for each set, two sheaves 15, one sheave 23, two sheaves 18 and one side of each of two sheaves 19.

Ilt is seen that the buoy 10 will rise and fall with the tides and with wave action. Weight 21 will move accordingly and, due to its weight, will keep the wire rope 14 taut. The length of wire rope 14 is selected so as to suspend 3 the weight a proper distance below the buoy when at its highest position and a selected distance above the bottom of the body of water when the buoy is at its :lowest position. It is possible that the weight will rest on the bottom if such position keeps the wire rope 14 taut.

The forces introduced by the vessel 13 are equalized by the horizontal forces in lines 14 between the weight 21 and the buoy 10. In considering the diameter of the buoy 10, the distance that weight 21 is shifted to one side in response to such horizontal forces is to be considered, so that the weight 21 will not be swung into the vertical lines connected to the anchors 17.

The buoyancy of the buoy 10, the weight of deadweight 21 and the strength and length of wire rope 14 are selected to meet the requirements of each mooring system as installed.

The buoy, though shown as a toroid, can be of any configuration that permits .the Stringing of the wire rope and the suspension of the weight so as to maintain the wire rope taut under all conditions of movement of the buoy.

Anchor hook 11 is pivoted so that the anchored vessel can rotate about the buoy in response to wind, wave and current direction changes.

When no vessel is tied to the buoy 10, the buoy is capable of raising and lowering with the changing water level and the weight moves in a vertical path to keep the wire rope taut. When a vessel is tied to the buoy, the horizontal forces caused by the vessel are compensated for by the opposite horizontal forces in the taut wire rope 14.

Obviously many modifications -and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

What is claimed is:

1. In a mooring system:

a plurality of anchor means,

line `fastening means mounted on said buoyant means, a plurality of anchor means,

a weight means,

a first plurality of equally spaced sheave means connected one to each of said anchor means,

a second plurality of equally spaced sheave means mounted on a vertical surface of said buoyant means,

a third plurality of equally spaced sheave means mounted on said buoyant means with their axes parallel to the horizontal surface of said buoyant means,

a fourth plurality of equally spaced sheave means mounted on said weight means, a continuous flexible connecting means wired through each of said sheave means in all of said pluralities,

the wiring of said connecting means being such that said connecting means passes over first a sheave of said first plurality, second over a sheave of said second plurality, third over a sheave of said first plurality, fourth over a sheave of said third plurality, fifth over a sheave of said fourth plurality cyclically in a given direction to al-l sheaves.

2. The mooring system of claim 1 wherein said buoyant means is of toroidal configuration.

3. The mooring system of claim 1 wherein said weight means is suspended beneath the aperture means through said buoyant means.

4. The mooring system of claim 1 wherein said third plurality of sheave means is made up of a plurality of aligned sheave means mounted along the surface of said buoyant means to pass said connecting means over said buoyant means.

5. The mooring system of claim 1 wherein said third plurality of sheave means is made up of sleeve means mounted to surround portions of said buoyant means.

6. The mooring system of claim 1 wherein the length of the continuous flexible connecting means determines the vertical freedom of said weight means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,151,594 10/1964 Collipp 114-230X TRYGVE M. BLIX, Primary Examiner. 

